Risk: objective or subjective, facts or values

Abstract

Perhaps the most fundamental divide in risk research is that between proponents of two contradictory concepts of risk. Some take risk as objectively given and determined by physical facts, whereas others see risk as a social construction that is independent of physical facts. These two views are scrutinized, and it is concluded that neither is tenable. Risk is both fact‐laden and value‐laden, and it contains both objective and subjective components. It is argued that both the objectivist and the subjectivist view of risk are failed attempts to rid a complex concept of much of its complexity. The real challenge is to identify the various types of factual and valuational components inherent in statements about risk and to understand how they are combined. The two oversimplifications both stand in the way of a more sophisticated analysis of risk.